Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Europe

Belgium Tries Iranian Diplomat over Bomb Plot

2020-11-28

[AnNahar] An Iranian diplomat goes on trial in Belgium on Friday accused of plotting to bomb an opposition rally outside Gay Paree, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran.

The case shines another uncomfortable light on Iran's international activities just as it hopes to ease tensions with the United States after President Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
tore up the 2015 nuclear deal signed by both countries and other world powers.

It also comes a day after a prisoner swap that saw the release of three Iranians tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
over a 2012 bomb plot in Thailand, in exchange for the freeing of an Australian-British lecturer imprisoned by Tehran for alleged spying.

The Australian is Kylie Moore-Gilbert. The three Iranians generously given in trade by Thailand are Saeid Moradi (“Stumpy”), Mohammad Kharzei, and Masoud Sedaghatzadeh.

In June 2018, Belgian authorities thwarted what they said was an attempt to smuggle explosives to La Belle France to attack a meeting of one of Iran's exiled opposition movements.

Later that year, the French government accused Iran's intelligence service of being behind the operation, a charge the Islamic republic has furiously denied.

Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old Iranian diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces life in prison if convicted.

The National Council of Resistance® in Iran
Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
(NCRI), which includes the People's Mojahedin of Iran or (MEK), organised a rally in Villepinte outside Gay Paree on June 30, 2018.

Several well-known international figures -- including former US and British officials and Franco-Colombian former senator Ingrid Betancourt -- and NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi were to attend.

On the same morning, Belgian police intercepted a Belgian-Iranian couple driving from Antwerp and carrying half-a-kilo of TATP explosives and a detonator.

The arrested couple, 36-year-old Nassimeh Naami and 40-year-old Amir Saadouni, join Assadi in the dock, alongside another alleged accomplice, Mehrdad Arefani, 57.

All four are charged with attempting to carry out a terrorist attack and taking part in the activity of a terrorist group. All face life sentences.

Assadi was arrested while he was travelling through Germany where he had no immunity from prosecution, being outside of the country of his diplomatic posting.

Arefani, an Iranian poet who had lived in Belgium for more than a decade, was arrested in La Belle France in 2018 after Belgium issued a European arrest warrant.

- 'ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS' -
Counsel representing those targeted by the alleged attack say Arefani was close to Assadi, said to be the architect of the plot, and point to an Austrian SIM card found in his possession.

The two men deny any connection.

"We are looking at a clear case of state terrorism
... any action taken by a non-Moslem state that constrains the violent impulses of Moslems or their allies ...
," said lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier, who is representing the interests of the NCRI, along with French colleague William Bourdon.

Dimitri de Beco, defence counsel for Assadi, has accused the civil plaintiffs of trying to turn the case into a political trial on behalf of the opposition movement.

According to Iran expert Francois Nicoullaud -- a former French ambassador to Tehran -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani
...Iran's moderate president, which he is, relative to his predecessor, which doesn't mean he's anything but a puppet of the nearest holy man...
was surprised to learn about the failed attack.

"Visiting Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
at the time, he was absolutely furious to learn about this intelligence service operation, on which he hadn't been consulted," the diplomat told AFP.

At the time of the alleged plot, Rouhani was trying to maintain the support of European capitals for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration.

When Gay Paree pointed the finger at Iranian intelligence, an Iranian front man voiced denial and alleged that opponents of the deal in "certain quarters" were attempting to frame Tehran.

That idea was dismissed by observers like Nicoullaud as a smokescreen. "It's not serious," he said.

The trial is scheduled to take two days, Friday and then Thursday next week. The court is then expected to adjourn to consider its verdict before ruling early next year.

Link

Southeast Asia

Iranian Bomb Suspects In Bangkok Claim Innocence

2012-12-22

Trial for two Iranians tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
for plotting botched attack on Israelis begins; lawyers says defendants had no prior knowledge of explosives stashed at their home

Two Iranians arrested after a botched bomb plot that allegedly targeted Israeli diplomats say they're innocent and were stunned to discover explosives stashed in a cabinet in their rented Bangkok home, a lawyer said Friday.
"Wudn't us."
Both men appeared in court Friday, 10 months after the explosives blew apart their home in a residential Bangkok neighborhood on Valentine's Day. The kaboom uncovered a plot that Thai authorities say was aimed at Israeli envoys and that Israel says was part of an Iranian-backed network of terror.

Authorities hope the trial, expected to end in March, will help explain who was behind the alleged plot that backfired when the explosives cache accidentally ignited.

Investigators say that bombs found at the home had round, coin-like magnets on them -- similar to "sticky" bombs used against Israeli diplomats in foiled attacks a day earlier in India and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Defense attorney Kittipong Kiattanapoom told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named the two Iranians will testify that "they did not have any prior knowledge of the bombs before they discovered them in the house they had rented."

One of the men is 28-year-old Saied Moradi, who fled the home carrying explosives that blew off his legs in another botched blast. He entered the courtroom in a wheelchair.
Next time make him crawl.
Moradi, a 28-year-old former soldier, "opened a cabinet in the house and saw four bombs there" and immediately told his two Iranian housemates to run for safety, the lawyer said.

Mohammad Kharzei, 42, was arrested that night at Bangkok's airport trying to board a flight to Iran.
Well, he was told to 'run for safety'...
Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, 31, was locked away
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
the next day in Malaysia and is currently appealing an extradition order to Thailand.

Moradi claims he was trying to dispose of two of the bombs by throwing them into a nearby canal when he collapsed in exhaustion while running from the home, triggering an kaboom that ripped off his legs.

"He denies throwing any of the bombs," Kittipong said.

Witnesses gave a dramatically different account.

A closed circuit video camera installed on the street outside the home showed the three Iranians emerge, one by one. Moradi was the last man out, wearing a black backpack and baseball cap, with blood dripping from his face, holding what looked like portable radios in each hand.

Food vendor Nayaree Ayong told the court he saw Moradi exit his home carrying "black boxes with green wires sticking out."
What happened to the red wires?
Another witness, Nayotrum Pratityung, said he followed Moradi and watched as he tried to hail a taxi but then crouched down and placed one of his black boxes in the middle of a two-lane street.

"About 30 seconds later a taxi came by," he told the court. "Then the taxi blew up." The taxi driver was among four people maimed.

Other witnesses at the time said Moradi threw an explosive at a taxi after its driver refused to stop for him.

Next, Moradi turned onto a main road as police began moving in, at which point the Iranian pulled a rectangular-shaped box from his backpack and threw it toward the officers, police said at the time. But Moradi's bomb got caught on something and hit the ground next to him and went kaboom!, instantly shredding both his legs at the knee.
So there is justice in Thailand...
Moradi and Kharzei both face up to 27 years in prison on charges of possession of unlawful explosives and causing kabooms that damaged property.

Moradi faces two additional charges, including attempted murder of a policeman, which carries the death penalty.

Link

Southeast Asia

Malaysian court approves deportation of Thai blast suspect

2012-06-26

[Dawn] A Malaysian court on Monday approved the deportation of an Iranian suspected of being involved in an alleged bomb plot against Israeli diplomats in Thailand.

Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
at Kuala Lumpur's international airport on February 15, was among three suspects in bombings that rattled Bangkok a day prior his arrest and saw Tehran accused of a terror campaign against Israel, which it denied.

The alleged plot emerged after an apparently unintended kaboom at a house in the Thai capital. One suspect hurled a bomb at police while fleeing, blowing off his own legs.

At a criminal sessions court in Kuala Lumpur, Judge S Komathy described Sedaghatzadeh, 31, as a "runaway criminal," said she disagreed with defence arguments that there was no evidence against him.

"In my view the conduct of the respondent is inconsistent with that of an innocent man," she said.

"The prosecution has shown that the respondent is a runaway criminal... as he is wanted by the Thai police for offences which come within the definition of extradition offences.

"I'm allowing the application for extradition and the respondent is to be cooled for a few years
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in prison pending an order from the minister (of home affairs)."Sedaghatzadeh, who was handcuffed and wore a striped polo shirt, told the hearing through an interpreter that he would appeal to the high court against the extradition.

"I require more time to defend myself," he said.

The kabooms in Bangkok came a day after bombers targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia, with a female diplomat seriously maimed in New Delhi, in attacks for which Israel accuses Iran.

Thai police have said that Israeli diplomats were the intended target of the plot.

Sedaghatzadeh has said he is a car parts dealer who came to Malaysia on business, while his lawyer said his client had visited Thailand for a "short holiday".

He was looking to travel on to Iran when he was tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
, Malaysian authorities have said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Malaysia to extradite Iranian over attack on Israelis

2012-06-25

A Malaysian court on Monday authorized the extradition to Thailand of an Iranian citizen suspected in carrying out an attack targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok, Army Radio reported.

The suspect, Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh, fled to Malaysia following the attack and was being held in jug there by authorities.

Ynet adds:

A Malaysian court says an Iranian man accused of plotting to attack Israeli targets in Bangkok must be extradited to Thailand.

Masoud Sedaghatzadeh wants to appeal the decision and is not expected to be immediately deported. Sedaghatzadeh was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
at a Malaysian airport soon after an apparently accidental kaboom rocked a Bangkok neighborhood in February.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Interpol Issues Red Notices For Iranians In Indian Bombing

2012-03-23

[AFP] Interpol has issued "red notices" for four Iranians suspected of involvement in a kaboom near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, the international police agency said Thursday.

Indian authorities requested the notices, which instruct police across the globe to arrest the suspects, following the February 13 embassy attack that left an Israeli diplomat seriously injured.

Those wanted are: Mohammadreza Abolghashemi, Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Masoud Sedaghatzadeh.

They are are all wanted for terrorism related offences, including criminal conspiracy and attempted murder.

"India has ensured that law enforcement officials around the globe are alerted to the wanted status of these runaways, and therefore reduces their options for international travel," Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement.

In the attack, a hitman on a

cycle of violence attached a magnetic bomb to the back of an Israeli embassy car carrying the 42-year-old diplomat, who was also the wife of the defence attache at the embassy.

The woman was left at death's door with spinal injuries and was flown to Israel for further treatment. Her driver and two passengers were also maimed.

Israel immediately accused Iran of being behind the bombing, which came on the same day as another attempted attack on an Israeli embassy car in Georgia.

But India has held back from blaming traditional ally Tehran although the Indian police's probe appears to be focused on Iranian nationals and those with ties to the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

Photographs of the suspects are posted on Interpol's website.

Link

Southeast Asia

Detention of Iranian Bomb Suspect Extended in Thailand

2012-02-23

A Thai court on Wednesday allowed police to continue to detain one of five Iranian suspects in an alleged terror plot that was exposed by an accidental blast in a residential Bangkok neighborhood.

Police Maj. Gen. Piya Uthayo said Mohammad Kharzei, 42, will be held at a Bangkok prison for at least 12 more days. He was incarcerated on charges of being an accomplice to possession of unlawful explosives and causing kabooms that damaged property and harmed other people.

Three men identified as Iranians decamped the house where the blast occurred Feb. 14. Police found bombs in the house, but are still not clear about the suspects' intentions.

There is speculation that they planned to attack Israeli targets in the Thai capital as part of a covert battle being waged over Iran's alleged quest to develop nuclear weapons.

The kabooms Feb. 14 came one day after two other incidents in India and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in which bombers tried to hit Israeli targets with so-called "sticky" bombs that attach magnetically to vehicles.

In Thailand, 43 coppers, including senior-ranking commissioners, have been assigned to work on the case and have found "quite a bit of evidence," Piya said.

He said Kharzei is the first suspect whose case has proceeded under criminal law. He was incarcerated at Bangkok's airport on the day of the blast as he was waiting for a flight to Malaysia. With court approval, a suspect can be jugged without formal charges for up to 84 days.

Another suspect, Saeid Moradi, 28, is so far being held for violating immigration law. He was jugged soon after the blast after he attempted to hurl explosives at coppers, blowing off part of his legs in the process.

Arrest warrants have been issued for three other suspects, all Iranians: Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, 31, who was jugged by Malaysian authorities last week; Leila Rohani, 31; and Norouzi Shayan Ali Akbar, 57. Thai authorities are seeking Sedaghatzadeh's extradition and believe Rohani and Akbar have returned to their home country.

Piya said Sherlocks have not found any links between the suspects and dozens of stickers bearing the word "SEJEAL" -- possibly a reference to a passage from the Koran -- that were pasted at various locations in Bangkok. The stickers were identical to ones found under the seat of the Iranians' cycle of violence as well as in an apartment rented by one of the suspects.

"The officers will base their investigation only on the evidence and witnesses, and will use neither speculation, nor imagination in solving this case," Piya said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Wednesday assigned two deputy prime ministers to oversee intelligence meetings and prepare security measures. She also asked the Transport Ministry to ensure the safety of travelers at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Link

Southeast Asia

Third Iranian suspect in Bangkok blasts arrested in Malaysia

2012-02-15

A third Iranian suspect sought after bomb blasts in Bangkok has been arrested in Malaysia. A statement from Malaysian federal police says that Masoud Sedaghatzadeh is being investigated for terrorism linked to the blasts in Bangkok.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-7 More